Elderly veteran arrested for asking gov't officials to speak louder

A 76-year-old military veteran was arrested for disorderly conduct at a public county board meeting for asking officials to speak up when they refused to use the microphones. The hearing was over a controversial new plant in the area.

The contentious meeting involved a group fighting a proposed US
Nitrogen plant and its plans to build a pipeline that would empty
into the nearby Nolichucky River in Greene County, Tenn. The
meeting - promoted as being a public one - was Friday at 8 a.m.,
which citizens complained was designed to keep them from
attending

In the meeting room, the county’s board sat in a circle around a
roped-off table at the front of the room, and did not use
microphones or podium behind the table, several attendees said.
At least four board members had their backs to the public viewing
area.

“They, in writing, presented a ‘public meeting’, but did
everything they could to confuse people as to when it would be,
having during the worst time of day and while conducting it,
making sure no could properly hear or understand what they were
saying,” Roberta Drake posted to the Save the
Nolichucky Facebook page. “It was all a farce.”

When citizens began complaining, Mayor Alan Broyles, who
announced in January he would not be running for reelection,
according to WJHL, warned, "If we have any more outbursts
from the audience, you will be removed from the building."

At this point Eddie Bruce Overholt, who the Greeneville Sun
describes as the owner of the popular CJ Papadops restaurant at
Bybee and a well known figure in both Cocke County and western
Greene County, stood up and said, "Would y'all speak up until
the whole audience can hear you?"

Police, who were on standby at the meeting, then moved to
Overholt and removed him from the room with his arms behind his
back, as he asked, “Are you throwing me out from a public
meeting?”

Overholt described what happened next in an open letter on
Facebook, and shared by the
Greeneville Sun.

"On the way down the steps the officer called for a
transport, but very shortly canceled the transport, saying he was
'walking me down'… He told me his name was Dixon or Hixon, and
very abruptly increased the pressure and lift on my right arm,
pulling my shoulder up into a very painful position, causing me
to walk very awkwardly,” Overholt wrote.

"After a few steps I told him I had a very bad back and hips
and would have to sit or lean against something, at which time he
lifted my right arm higher and stated that I had no trouble
walking forward in the meeting room,” the veteran added.
"His next words were, 'You are charged with resisting
arrest.' [He] got on his radio and called for backup. Another
officer pulled up but did not get out of his car.”

Roger Coen, a Greene County resident who was also escorted out of
the meeting explained what happened to him in an open letter:

The motion was being made to be adjourned and I said that
[Greene County Chamber of Commerce board member] Tom Ferguson
told me that we were able to ask questions but I was told that
Tom Ferguson was not running the meeting. I was then escorted
out by the police with my hands behind my back to the hallway.
Tom Ferguson followed us out and grabbed my hand and said he
was sorry that this was a private meeting but the public was
invited. He also said he was sorry, that he did tell me we were
allowed to ask questions. Then the cop took me outside and made
me leave the property so I had to stand on the sidewalk in the
rain to wait on my wife while two police officers stood under
the roof on the porch watching me.

Deborah Fisher, who works with the Tennessee Coalition for Open
Government, told Save the Nolichucky that there is no right to
public comment at public meetings, but that the board should have
made accommodations for all attendees to hear the proceedings.
She urged county residents to file an open meetings complaint
with the state.

The Tennessee Open Records Counsel received 42 complaints about
the meeting by Monday, WJHL reported.

Greeneville City Administrator Todd Smith sent the Sun an emailed
statement on the incident. "At the arraignment this morning,
the judge decided to continue the hearing against Mr. Overholt
until Sept. 22. Mr. Overholt is charged with interfering with a
public hearing and resisting arrest,” Smith wrote.
"Since this is an ongoing criminal hearing, we have no
additional comments at this time."

The Greene County Industrial Development Board voted at the
Friday meeting to resubmit a permit application requesting the
Tennessee Department Of Transportation to allow the board to
place a double-pipeline along state and county right-of-ways from
the area of the US Nitrogen plant at Midway to the Nolichucky
River, the Sun reported.